Initiative focuses attention on global warming

Teach-in, panel discussion at KU have multidisciplinary scope

This week, Kansas University students and faculty will be part of a nationwide initiative to focus attention on global warming.

The initiative, Focus the Nation, will be a combination of a teach-in – billed by organizers as the nation’s largest – and a panel discussion featuring local and state leaders. The initiative, organized by KU Hillel and the KU Center for Sustainability, will be spread over two days, Wednesday and Thursday.

KU is one of more than 1,600 participating institutions, a group that includes colleges, universities, civic organizations and faith-based groups. The groups represent all 50 states.

Focus the Nation is a project of the Green House Network, an environmental advocacy group, and is directed by Eban Goodstein, economics professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.

“Today’s college students are truly the greatest generation,” Goodstein said in a statement. “No other generation has ever had to face this kind of civilizational challenge. And we as educators would be failing if we did not prepare them with the tools to meet this challenge.”

Professors in at least 40 KU classes plan to discuss global warming as it relates to their subjects – ranging from biology and geology to French and Russian.

Jeff Severin, director of the KU Center for Sustainability, said that diversity exemplifies the interdisciplinary cooperation that is necessary to combat global warming.

“It’s not just something that should be discussed in science classes,” Severin said. “It’s something that has a potential to affect us all. It’s going to require creative solutions from all disciplines to really face this challenge.”

Severin said 1,600 KU students will be reached through the teach-in.

Greg Burg, assistant director of undergraduate biology at KU, will use the teach-in to talk to his medical entomology students about the effect global warming has on mosquito populations. He said as the climate has warmed, a big concern in his field has been the movement of mosquitoes from the tropics to the southern United States. He said those mosquitoes can carry diseases such as malaria and dengue.

“The impact is much, much broader than most people realize,” Burg said.

A panel discussion at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Dole Institute of Politics on KU’s West Campus is designed to engage students – and the community. Among those scheduled to appear are U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, state Sen. Marci Francisco, Mayor Sue Hack and City Commissioner Boog Highberger.

Matt Lehrman, program director at KU Hillel, said that discussion offers a rare opportunity to see public officials interact.

“You don’t often get to see elected officials conversing back and forth,” Lehrman said. “It’s a conversation to see where we are and where we can get to. I think to see that in person rather than on TV is going to be important.”

For more information about Focus the Nation, visit www.focusthenation.org or www2.ku.edu/~sustain.